Russia Is Planning Its Most Powerful Blow Yet to Try to Freeze Ukraine
Ukraine showed European partners what it said were intercepted Russian plans to cut off major cities from power, heat and water this winter. Overlooking the Dnipro River before the autumn and winter period in Kyiv, Ukraine. By Constant Méheut Photographs by Jędrzej Nowicki Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine The New York Times Oct. 2, 202 For months, Ukrainian officials have warned people to brace for what could be their hardest winter at war. Russia, they said, would use its ever more powerful weapons to try to cripple the country’s power grid. The first big strike was expected later this fall, with the first bite of cold. Russia did not wait that long. Before dawn on Wednesday, missiles and drones slammed into a large thermal power plant and other energy facilities, shaking the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, with explosions. By morning, several neighborhoods were without power and water. The attack, Ukrainian officials said, marked the opening salvo of a new campaign to plunge...